Evesham; Thought4Sport

Evesham; Thought4Sport  

Thought4Sport is a European Social Funded project, working with Young People that are Not in Education, Employment and Training, in order to support them in acquiring the skills, values and opportunities to work towards building a career in sport or other related areas. 

Support sport will be partnering with organisations such as Wallace House Community Centre, Ourside Youth Centre, SGS and Working Word for the duration of this project.

Support Sport will be challenging young people through providing numerous Sports Leaders Workshops in the Evesham Area, at The Adventure Playground (Woodlands) which will offer transferable skills from problem solving,creativity,teamwork,communication skills and public speaking,to the skills that are more specific to sport such as refereeing,coaching,adapting games for fun and working with children and young people.

"We see the Adventure Playground as an ideal place for us to work with young people, they can come and focus and really engage in building a brighter future through sports leadership"

Support Sport in action in a recent project in Stratford Upon Avon

The project will benefit the participants socially by bringing them together to meet new people from different walks of life. Thought4Sport will improve the employ-ability of each individual giving them the skills they need to find employment, casual work, volunteering roles, but more importantly the confidence, values, responsibility and aspirations at the end of the project.

"The project really isn't about a qualification or other short term benefits, young people that are out of work have a journey to travel before they can find an occupation that suits their needs, personality and skills. We aim to find those skills, build them and showcase them, to provide a platform towards future success! Joe Graham, Director 

Support Sport are also please to announce that we have recently confirmed funding from Comic Relief, and that will allow us to provide the young people that access our project, the opportunity to assist and deliver live sports sessions in their community, in a supervised environment, for children to enjoy. Young people will continue to receive mentoring from tutors during this period, gaining feedback for their positive work in the community.

Support Sport have run similar projects in the past in areas such as Stratford Upon-Avon, Warwick and Kenilworth, where young people continue to seek our support on projects such as Kenilworth minigames and Leamington Futsal which are great examples of parts of our project in Evesham.




If you would like to inquire or book onto the programme, use the contact details below:
Email:supportsport@live.co.uk Tel: Joe Graham on 07801 597666. Twitter: @_SupportSport

Young Leaders Award

Introducing the Young Leaders Award

Support Sport are currently running a Young Leaders Award. 

The Young Leader Award is a programme of leadership training for young people between the ages of nine and 13 that promotes them working with younger children, teaching them basic leadership skills through a range of games and activities.

The award focuses on fundamental skills essential to coaching. Such as giving instructions, the organisation of people and equipment, and the use of space. The award teaches these topics through a practical, activity based, approach. In this way, the Young Leaders 'learn by doing' and, by the end of the course, will not only have the confidence and ability to lead others but will also have knowledge and experience of an extensive range of games and activities. 

The Cost of the programme is £50, and we have 10 spaces available. Support Sport can provide subsides for this course. (For any inquires use the contact details provided at the bottom of the page.)  

To book your place or for more information please contact Joe Graham on 07801 597666 or e-mail supportsportbookings@live.co.uk

Follow Support Sport on twitter! @graham_joe

Stratford Unity in the Community: Phase 2 Starts this Friday!!

Support Sport have been working in the different communities in Stratford within the last few weeks!

The number of participants attending our sessions has remained extremely high, especially in Bishopton, Stratford.

With many of the young people asking if we will be running future activities in Stratford, one young person went as far as to say

" people are so much better behaved when Support Sport are here...i go to school with some of these guys and they are like changed kids"

One PCSO also suggested " Well this is the best i have ever seen them behaving, its great and should be happening all over" On this particular night we had 37 young people attend the session!

Support Sport Coach Sean Rellis

Coaches Steve Duffy and Sean Rellis, Paul Dipple and Joe Graham, who are all extremely proud of the way the project has progressed, also understand that for the more challenging young people there is more at stake:

" if we can keep C**** ******** this highly engaged and through phase 2 (leadership course) it will change his life for the better!"

In Clopton, Support Sport have persisted with activities and really had to act on instinct to allow young people to access the project in a positive environment and have as a result had a massive increase of young people from as little as 3 young people who were attending, move up to 13 in the last few weeks!

Director Joe Graham stated: I came into the project with knowledge of the great effect we have had in Warwick, but Stratford has been very difficult. With the cuts to the youth service, it is so hard to find people that are actually supporting young people! This is one of our greatest achievements to date and i think the young people actually really appreciate us"

Bishopton vs Clopton

Bishopton Corner

Support Sport ran a tournament for young people in Stratford at the Recreational Ground on 22/6/12 and 29/6/12 and had a fantastic turnout and response, see the pics below:

Two captains preparing for kick off

Bishopton vs Oxford House College

Support Sport would also like to thank all of our funders for allowing this to go ahead.

Unity in the Community

Coach Sean Rellis

Please watch out blog page to find out about phase 2 of our project (see below for video of last years course in Warwick).

Team Bishopton Defending

For people interested in accessing our Sports Leadership Course, please contact Joe Graham on 07801597666 or email supportsport@live.co.uk

Front page of Sports Leaders Flier

Enrolment Form

Back Page Sports LeadersFlier

Unity In the Community - Stratford!!

Unity in the community is finally up and running in Stratford Upon-Avon, aiming to engage young people to get involved in sport in their community, but also to become leaders for their community.

The project also has links to employment, work experience and volunteering roles to further support the development of young people. In particular, the project targets young people that are not in education, employment or training, or generally at some form of social disadvantage.


Unity in the Community is ran in three stages, the first of which has just begun in the Bancroft, Bishopton and Clopton areas of Stratford consisting of football and multi-sport activities for young people to play as they wish. Activities last up to 7 weeks and the project finishes with a Tournament (See Flier for details) for teams from all over Stratford to enter!


So far we have had a fantastic response over this from both young people and people that work with them, alongside local authorities who have also been very supportive! We need people from all community organisations and individuals across stratford to get and stay involved with this to help young people utilise this opportunity to its potential!



In stage 2 Young leaders will complete Sports Leaders Level 1 and 2 Qualifications, which hold UCAS and QCF points and are nationally recognised qualifications, leading Higher Sports Leader Award (Please see http://www.sportsleaders.org/) of the project in order to develop their leadership skills and give them the opportunity to coach others in their community!



This part of the project will last 10 weeks for each qualification and will involve a community event (football tournament which will be publicised shortly) for young people to showcase their skills!

Director Joe Graham states:

"This was the route that helped me into sports coaching, i started off as a 14 year old with very little self esteem and always in trouble, but through sport and coaching i learnt discipline, morales and values that i have stuck to ever since. The most rewarding thing for me, is when i see the people that are making the same progress that i began making 10 years ago, and getting so much respect off their community, i just wish i had opportunities like this back then". Stacey Doughty

The project is also set up to provide ongoing support for young people, and a budget is allocated to ensure that young people that come through the project can benefit from additional training such as workshops, sport specific or refereeing qualifications.




This is very flexible and will be worked out on an individual basis. We are also aiming to run community sessions at by the end of the project, where young people will run sessions in their and others' communities to build cohesion between themselves and other generations.

Perhaps the strongest element of the project, is the links that Support Sport have to other organisations within the community, supporting young people to use their skills to find work, volunteering, placements and other support networks!

Participants comments (please watch this space as participants will be adding to it regularly!)

" Since the project unity in the community i have been given many opportunities to develop as a coach and a person. Since the project i have only grown in confidence as Onside coaching have gave me opportunites to work for them and i have also been working in schools and other sports projects in the community ! "

"The activities we are doing are fun and they are centred round us so we can enjoy it"

Finally, Support Sport would like to thank the Stratford Town Trust, Orbit Heart of England Housing Association, TOMS Fund, Stratford Town Council and Warwickshire County Council. This is not only for their funding and financial support, but for their tireless support in supporting us to get the project off the ground.

Support Sport are also looking for partners within the project to support young people from all types of backgrounds to get involved. We are already working with the youth service, but with the cuts that Stratford have faced in this department we are looking for all kinds of organisations to come forward from potential employers, organisations willing to take on someone on work experience, organisations seeking volunteers or that have volunteers that could contribute to the project.

Please contact Joe Graham to find out more details (07801 597666 or supportsport@live.co.uk).

Follow @graham_joe

Support Sport Fun Runs - Raising Money for Warwickshire Crimebeat!!

Support sport have entered 2 young people- Stacey Doughty and Steve Duffy into the 2 castle run (warwick castle to kenilworth castle) This is a great opportunity to raise money for support sport so we can keep the projects such as project brazil, kenilworth mini games and even to employ another apprentice!

We are looking to raise £150 each and so far we have managed to raise just over £70 each in the last couple of days. If you are interested in either running a race or to sponsor us then please contact us on 07980083992 or via email-supportsport@live.co.uk!

Stratford Unity in the Community starting today!! Lets get all young people involved!! PLEASE RT THE FLIER!! twitter.com/graham_joe/sta…
— Support Sport (@graham_joe) May 15, 2012

Boxing for young people in Warwick!

Follow @graham_joe

Support Sport are organising boxing lessons for young people aged between 13 & 19 at The Gap Centre, Oakwood Drive, Warwick.

The idea of the project is to keep young people off the streets, giving them the opportunities that they need to build discipline, values and skills and apply it to their lives outside of the ring.

Donate a small fee to us through localgiving.com
to help opportunties like this continue

Director Joe Graham said:

"We ran a project for local young people to become young sports leaders, which was brilliant for the young people involved and some of them have made life changing progress since the beginning of the project, however, this doesn't suit everyone, and i feel that boxing could really help some of our youth channel some of their issues and learn to control some of their aggression. Whats brilliant about it is some of the leaders that attended our first project and begun the changing process, will be mentors on this programme."

Allthough the opportunity is open to the wider community, we are prioritising people within these age brackets from Percy, Woodloes and Packmores estates. The first session will take place this Friday 2nd March @ The GAP Centre, Oakwood Drive, Warwick. The project will then run each friday, plus some midweek days.

To enquire about a place, please contact Joe Graham on 07801 597666.

Fit4Sport: South Leamington

Support Sport have recieved funding from the South Leamington Physical Activity Fund in order to deliver activities for children in South Leamington School.

The activities are based on multi-skills and multi-sports and developing the fitness skills of children in the area. The children undertook a few simple fitness tests on the first day, and will undertake the same tests on the last week of delivery, where we will assess how much of an improvement that they have made!

So far Support Sport have come into contact with just over 60 participants from mixed backgrounds.

See some of the comments below that have been made regarding the project:

"i love the coaches they make it fun and we are learning lots of sports"

"he has never got out of bed this early before!!!"

"we hade absolutely no trouble in school last week after the sessions, so it may well be helping the childrens learning too"

"im gonna be strong and fit when i finish"

"most of us can allready beat our test scores" 

"its a fantastic opportunity for children that dont always come first in the pecking order when it comes to opportunities like this...brilliant!"

Please keep an eye out on this blog so that you can see the whole story with photos at the end of the project, for any enquiries on the project, please contact supportsport@live.co.uk or

Follow @graham_joe